1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to capacitors and, in particular, to capacitors in which connections to the device are made by way of one or more beam leads.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional beam lead capacitors are made by depositing a dielectric layer of silicon dioxide and silicon nitride onto a n.sup.+ -type silicon wafer. The beam leads are connected to the dielectric layer via ohmic contacts to form a metal-insulator-semiconductor capacitor in which the semiconductor acts as one of the capacitor electrodes. The electrical performance of these capacitors is impaired by losses in the silicon wafer and in the ohmic contacts. In addition to this, because of depletion in the silicon wafer, the capacitance varies with the bias levels of the device.
In such devices a conflict arises between the need to fix the beam leads securely and the need for stray impedances, especially capacitance attributable to the beam leads to be kept to a minimum.